The Chronicles Of
by CharmingPiper
Summary: Completed Sequel to Life On The Fast Track, recommed to read that first but you will understand this story either way. Takes place 19 years after the end of LOTFT. How did life turn out for Rory and her newborn son? Read and find out...
1. Chapter 1

**Rating: R, just to be on the safe side.**

**Disclaimer: No way, no how, no hell does anything remotely close to Gilmore Girls belong to me.**

**The Chronicles Of…**

_**Shane**_

It's funny really how this thing we call life can turn out. I mean if someone would have told me three months ago that I would be sitting in some cramped classroom in Hicksville USA at an A. A meeting with invited troubled teens, who would hear the horror stories of alcoholism and change their ways, waiting for my two month sobriety mark along with my mom I would have declared said person insane on the spot. Yet here I'm, the only son of Tristan Dugrey's and Rory Gilmore's short marriage, doing just that. As I said life works mysterious ways and I haven't even gotten to the weird part yet, you see when I say along with my mom I don't mean in the normal I'm-here-to-support-my-son- way, no I mean literally ALONG since she is also receiving her two month sobriety mark. It goes figure the ONE thing we have in common is alcoholism. Ironically enough everyone kept telling me how much I was like my dad when my life started to get off track but no one did rat ass about since they figured my mom would straighten me out just like she did with dad. Little did they know she was just as messed up as me only she was better to keep up appearances, I guess it came with all the years of practice she had gotten. Anyway by the time anyone saw behind the façade we put up, it was too late in more ways than one. Granted my looser great-grandparents did a pathetic attempt to save the honour of the Gilmore name but considering they hadn't care before I just threw it back in their faces.

The sound of my name being called up brings me back to reality and I go to the makeshift stage to get my mark and reveal my life's story to a room of strangers. As you might have picked up already I'm not a big fan of these meetings and all the sharing it involves but if it helps me to take the road less travelled I'll deal with it.

"Hi, my name is Shane Tristan Gilmore and I'm an alcoholic", I wait for the standard Hello Shane's to die down before continuing."I took my first drink when I was 14 and by the time I was 15 I was a full blown alcoholic I just didn't know it at the time. To understand why I took that first drink you guys need to know the background also known as my life and I guess I should start with my parents. Now that isn't as easy as it might sound since their story isn't exactly a conventional love story because they both were knee-deep in issues during the time they first met. Anyway it all started with the casual hook up during High School in the no strings attached type of relationship, which each of them entered for their own personal agendas and I'm the product of a very drunken night in Las Vegas that also landed them married, kind of fitting huh? Anyhow seven months later they got their act together and declared their love for each other and everyone lived happily ever after…if it had been in the movies yeah...here in reality ever after lasted for three months until the day I was born. You see my dad got himself killed in a car accident the very same day, so I never met him, well actually I did once but I was way too young to remember so it doesn't count. Let me tell you it really is a curse to know you're born on the same day as your dad both was born and died. Sounds complicated? Well welcome to my life.

To get back on track here as soon as she could mom took us to San Francisco for a new beginning. San Francisco became my home for the next twelve years and I loved it there, sure mom had a dead end job but we made ends meet and I never lacked anything. I had friends, good grades, a mom, but most of all I was allowed to be a child, something I didn't fully appreciate at the time.

On the day that fateful phone call came telling us that grandma was in a coma after a car accident, it was rainy hard outside and I somehow knew, as soon as mom announced we were going to move to Connecticut that my life would never be the same again, but even so the magnitude of this change exceed my wildest imagination. Being back on the East Coast seemed to open up some old wounds of mom's and she went from caring to absent and cold. After a while you could barely contact her and she spent most of her days screaming or crying as she sank deeper and deeper into her depression and thus leaving this world's responsibilities behind. I guess she started drinking when we had been back for about six months and she completely surrendered to the ghosts of her past. At first it wasn't such a big deal as it just happened only on the weekends, however, soon the weekends lasted all week long and she was lost. Meanwhile I grew up and started looking more like my dad for each and every day, which lead her to avoid me more and more. Suddenly I alone had to take care of both myself and the household as in I had to cook, clean, do my homework and try to make rent part-timing at the same time as mom was shacked up with the latest flavour of the week being a total bitch.

In this manner my life went on until my 14th birthday, which was forgotten just as my previous had been, so nothing new there. Something that was new though was coming home and finding a bottle of vodka standing there on the coffee table. To this day I'm not sure if it was meant to be a birthday present from mom or just something she had forgotten but seeing how things turned out I don't really wanna know the answer to that. So there I was staring at that bottle and I don't think you can say anything other than the temptation of forgetting everything that had become my life was too well tempting and I drank. The first sip burn like hell let me tell you but in a good way and it did offer the relief I was in such a desperate need of, so I took another and another until I passed out on the couch. And from that day on I was doomed to repeat the same cycle mom had went through earlier, although it was first when my grandma woke up and nothing changed that I completely surrendered to the alcohol. As I said earlier I was about 15 then and my mom was too busy in her own personal hell to notice except when we got drunk together.

Now when we have established how I became a drunk I'm the first one to admit I'm a nasty one. As soon as I get alcohol in my system I become a ruthless mean son of a bitch, who isn't above using people to get what he want and it isn't pretty. Up until two months ago at an intervention I lived for the next drink or how to obtain it and made a rule of being constantly drunk. Therefore most of my teenage years went by in a blur and now I'm a newly sober 19 year old alcoholic with no education and with the only ambition of staying sober. Hell the one thing I have going for me is that I broke the Gilmore tradition of becoming a teen parent or at least I hope I did. Now if this doesn't sound like the life for you I suggest you stay away from the bottle. That's all for me, thanks for listening, bye".

After finishing I slowly make my way outside not feeling up for all the pity looks and in need for a smoke. I know the cliché of going from one addiction to another but in all honestly I don't give a shit and at least this way I am not breaking any laws. Just as I take the first calming drag I hear the door closing behind me and feel a hand on my shoulder and somehow I know it's grandma.

"Shane are you ok? she asks concern evident in her voice.

It feels nice to know someone still cares.

"Yeah", I hear myself answering.

"Come back inside then, it's Rory's turn".

With a sign I put out my smoke and let her lead me back to listen to my mom's version. As I said funny how life turns out.

TBC

**Author's note**: I know nothing of how an A. A meeting goes, thank God for small things huh, but this is the way mine does. I hope you liked it and I will write at least another chapter and hopefully it won't be too much of a repetition. Any tips on how I can make the next chapter better are welcome!

Oh and sorry about the typos and grammar mistakes I know must be present since my first language isn't English and I have no BETA. Till next time,


	2. Rory

**Rating: R, just to be on the safe side.**

**Disclaimer: No way, no how, no hell does anything remotely close to Gilmore Girls belong to me.**

**The Chronicles Of…**

_**Rory**_

Man I really am a terrible mom, I mean how damn self-absorbed do you have to be not to notice that your only child is miserable. God, I'm so sorry Tristan, I failed to keep our son safe.

"And next up is Lorelai Leigh Gilmore", the voice in front says.

Ok here we go I think as I retrace the steps that Shane took mere minutes before, plastering a smile on my face pretending to be happy when that's the last thing I'm. What I wouldn't do for some whiskey right about now rushes through my head and scares the hell out of me considering I'm on a freaking A. A meeting but I pull myself together enough to push the thoughts of alcohol to the back of my mind and go to the mic to start talking.

"Hi everyone. My name is Lorelai Leigh Gilmore and I'm obviously an alcoholic"

The crowd answers back after some murmurs making me realize that sarcasm doesn't work here.

"Okeeej. So I don't know how to say this after Shane's speech, but here it comes I'm his mom, yeah I'm the she devil, who was too busy feeling sorry for herself to notice her son was miserable, in the flesh. Now my road to alcoholism was very different from Shane's. Although I also took my first drink in my teens it took me over a decade to become addicted, but the foundation for my addiction was laid when I first met Shane's father Tristan, who don't get me wrong here was a great guy but he was the one I started drinking with. Hell he even was responsible for me being hanged over on my own graduation. Yes mom I was" I add as I see mom's surprised expression. "So Tristan and I first meet my freshman year at Chilton and he showed me how to live a little and not take life so seriously and ironically enough this happy go lucky guy, who was a commitment phobic turned out be the love of my life and here is the really ironic part my husband. Of course it took stubborn us a marriage obviously and a pregnancy to realize that but we did and then he went and died on me, so to say I was devastated to be left alone with a newborn in a world I didn't really was a part of is the understatement of the year but I coped I really did.

I took Shane to a new town for a fresh start and got us a flat, landed myself a waitress gig and hell even dated a guy or two, granted nothing serious but still I moved on the best way I could. I counted myself lucky to have a trouble free wonderful son by my side and not a sight of the insane life left on the other side of the country, which I strangely enough didn't miss one bit…ok that was a lie in the sense that I did miss one person, my mom, like crazy. Granted we had had a real rift between us during most of my pregnancy but in the end she had really come through for me something I appreciated with all my heart but that sadly enough didn't change the fact that being near her reminded me of something I could never have, my happily ever after with Tristan since she had been with me in the hospital room when the police had come with the news of his death and therefore it became a necessity at the time to cut her out of our lives. And in the process of doing so I had to reveal my inner bitch for the first time and I became really terrible to her, so terrible that she didn't even bother to say good bye when the time came something I completely understood, but I had a plan with the way I was acting and it was to push her as far away as possible so she wouldn't see the pain I was in and guess what it worked. In the end I succeeded in putting an entire continent between us but even though it all had turned out exactly the way I wanted I couldn't help feeling guilty for how I had been. Anyway I think this guilt was the reason why I acted the way I did after the phone call, telling me mom was in a coma, came. In hindsight it was definitely the wrong thing to do but back then all I could think about was that I needed to be there for her and not let her die without knowing how much I loved her, which lead us to start packing the very next day and about a week later being back in Connecticut with everything we owed, overwhelmed and lost.

From day one I could feel something within myself shifting but I thought I could deal with it cuz let's face it I had had a whole lot of experience in the area but as it turned out I failed miserably at my task. I still vividly remember the day I started my drinking because the bad news just kept on hitting me until it all became too much to deal with. The day in question started with my usual visit to mom in the hospital only to firstly have another run in with my dad, who still couldn't accept Shane's existence in my life and secondly having her doctor telling me that after six months in a coma the prognosis of mom waking up was slime to none. Talk about rude awakening huh? After leaving the hospital I just started wandering around downtown Hartford in an attempt to clear my mind but every turn I took held some memory of Tristan and before I knew what happened I found myself at home holding a bottle of Wild Turkey in my hands and at that moment I was just so tired of crying myself to sleep every night, of feeling lonely, lost and overwhelmed, basically you can say I was fed up with everything, so I started drinking and I never really stopped after that. After the relief that first time brought I just wanted more. no craved is a better choice of word, and I found myself living for the Fridays when I could meet my new friend Jack Daniels again. As the days went by everything turned harder to do without something to numb the pain even to and this I'm ashamed to admit to look at my son and the Fridays started to last all week long as I escaped into the darkness where nothing else than getting wasted mattered.

When my mom miraculously recovered I was in too deep to care, which explains how I could get wasted with my teenage son without thinking twice about it. Hell I thought I was the coolest mom ever cuz I let him have parties at home and gave not only him but also his friends as much booze as they needed with only two pieces of advice to offer, one do not get caught and two do not get anyone knocked up. Other than that I let him live his life just as I lived mine and we would meet like two ships in the night sometimes to party with others and sometimes just the two of us drinking together.

Thankfully someone had the guts to make me face my problems and here I'm two months later. Now I don't remember a helluva of a lot of those years but what I do makes me hate myself. I mean I'm the reason for our whole dysfunctional family and I don't have a doubt in my mind that we both would have ended up dead within a couple of years had it not been for that intervention. Right now my first priority is to stay sober, which it's a full time job even more so than I realized at first because just as late as today I had the family pull for a drink and it's been two month since my last one. I naively enough thought that the craving would lessen with time but I have started to realize just why everyone keeps telling me to just take it one day at the time. This life is not something I recommend for anyone; just imagine that never again being able to take a drink at holiday or other celebrations and add the undying craving for said drink and you have any alcoholic's life. I like to finish this off by offering a long overdue apology to my son. I'm really truly sorry for everything I put you through Shane and I hope you someday will find it in your heart to forgive me. That would be all for me thank you"

I step down into the aisle between the rows of chairs only to be met by Shane, who to my surprise pulls me into a hug. We just stand there clinging on to each other like there's no tomorrow, which is the way it feels, when the sweetest words ever spoken reach my ears.

"I forgive you mom", Shane whispers his voice raw with emotion.

TBC

**Author's note:**

Do you guys want one or two more chapters?


	3. Lorelai

**Rating: R, just to be on the safe side.**

**Disclaimer: No way, no how, no hell does anything remotely close to Gilmore Girls belong to me.**

**The Chronicles Of…**

_**Lorelai**_

As I watch Shane and Rory hugging up front I can't help but tearing up and hoping that maybe just maybe the healing process can begin because God only knows the two of them need each other to get through this even if they are too stubborn to admit it. Not that I can blame Shane for being reluctant to let Rory in again cuz daughter or not she hurt him unbelievably much the last time with her behaviour but even so she deserves a second chance and by the looks of it that's exactly what she is getting. Ok, so I have to admit part of me wants this for entirely selfish reasons because no matter how many times Rory keeps telling me I'm not responsible for something that would have come out sooner or later I can't help feeling if I hadn't gotten into that damn car wreck none of this would have happened. Even though I got my daughter and grandson back the price was too high and I almost lost them all over again.

Before Rory left for California I thought I had a better relationship with her than with my own parents, a lie I kept telling myself even after the car wreck and she was back, boy was I wrong. I should have realized my error already after Tristan's death when the fragile relationship we had built up the last months of her pregnancy came crashing down as Rory just pushed me away every time I tried to help her, but I couldn't bring myself to face it so I kept pretending. Since I could relate to the whole I can do it myself attitude I just stopped fighting to get through to her thinking she would come when she was good and ready based on my belief of our closeness, something I still kick myself for. Anyway when I finally realized it had all been an act and she wasn't coming around I had lost them both as Rory had taken them somewhere and had made sure I couldn't follow. After some mandatory grieving I went back to my every-day life with my every-day routines and chores but all the while I had this hole inside of me that just kept on growing and a couple of months after Rory's departure more and more people started to notice that I was acting differently. Luke was one of the firsts, which isn't strange since I spend a big portion of my days there and when I started accepting no for coffee he knew something was wrong. As he put it I never thought I would miss it, but things got too boring around here without your crazy antics. Where Rory and Shane ran into alcohol I ran into someone familiar, Christopher.

In all honesty I don't know what possessed me to go to him of all places but I did . It wasn't like I woke up one day saying today I'm going to go shagging Chris, no it happened gradually with a phone call here and there that left me oddly at peace and the more we talked the better I felt so the phone calls became a daily occurrence as we started working through some of our issues but staying clear of Shane knowing it would lead to a fight neither of us needed. We could talk about Rory growing up or rather I talked and he listened but never of Shane or Tristan cuz we knew we differed in our opinion of the guys in Rory's life and just accepted it. One would think it would have been easier talking about Rory growing up with someone who had been there, say Luke, but it wasn't and to this day I can't really explain why, I guess for better or worse Chris would always be a part of Rory even more so we shared a past and he knew me at a time when I was just Lorelai and not Lorelai, Rory's mom and I needed to find a more mature version of that 16 year old again for the sake of my survival.

A year or so after Rory had left, I and Chris meet again and it was awkward at first but we got over it and started seeing each other regularly for the first time in two decades and it was nice, really nice but nothing deeper. The first time we ended up in bed together it was all about comfort but over time it grew into something more. But at the time being with Chris became something of an addiction, I knew it couldn't be all that good for me but I couldn't stop as I needed a fix at least a couple of times a week to hold it together. In the middle of all this I couldn't deny that the chemistry was still there and slowly I started to return to my old self but coming into my own again made me realize I had fallen for Chris, despite all his imperfections and attitude towards Shane, I found myself head of heels in love with that man. Luckily the feeling was mutual and after years of sneaking around we made it official and moved in together but not to everyone's pleasure. Since I had the inn Chris had to move to Stars Hollow, something he did to my great surprise even though he was completely aware of the treatment he would be subject to, making me see the first changes in Christopher Hayden. Over time I started to see the man I always thought he had potential of becoming appearing in front of me and our relationship grew to something healthier for the both for us. I can honestly say that the only thing missing to make me completely happy was two persons, who I had found out lived in California, but for the first time it looked like me and Chris had future together.

Now let's fast forward to the night of the accident. Chris and I had had yet another heated argument about Shane and I ended up in my car driving around to calm down. Stupid huh? I don't know how but I ended up in Hartford and after driving around for a while I had calmed down enough to look forward to our steamy make-up sex and I headed home. I didn't even see the truck swerving into my side of the road until it was too late. All I remember is hitting the brakes and then everything went black. Apparently the driver was under the influence, maybe it was fate's twisted way in telling what were to come.

The next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital bed years later only to discover that the world around me was completely different from the memory I had of it. At first things were looking up when I learned that my long lost daughter and grandson were home again but my happiness was clouded by the fact that I saw the tension radiating in the room as soon as Chris was around at the same time as Rory, which made me sad since I now knew exactly how much Chris loved her. Therefore as soon as I was up to it I started working on making it better between them and slowly, slowly the tension disappeared, hell Chris even started seeing Shane now and again. However everything wasn't well cuz I felt like for some unknown reason, that Rory always kept her guard up around me and after a while when Shane once again had smelled alcohol when he visited me I took it up with Rory, certain I at long last knew what was bothering her and being the good actress that she was she convinced me she would deal with it and of course I rested assure after that. She must have said something to Shane cuz after that he never smelled alcohol while visiting me again. I figured everything was just fine and dandy and put all my effort into my rehabilitation.

I guess the reason I didn't see the real problem earlier was probably the same reason why Rory rebelled in her teens, I simply didn't want to see anything else than my perfect daughter with her perfect son, now one would think I had learned from my mistake the last time around like a normal person but when did Lorelai Gilmore do anything the normal way. I still, for some reason, held onto the belief that what I saw meaning that Rory had dealt with everything as good as it seemed was the god honest truth but appearance as we all know can be deceiving and boy was I on the top of that class.

When I got out from the hospital I started seeing more of the two of them and more often than not they seemed glazed over, forgetful and in hindsight a definite tell tale sign was the fact that they always were hiding behind a pair of sunglasses, but life moved on without any major disturbances until Shane got into some trouble involving the police and my parents tried to straighten him out, what a joke huh! It obviously didn't work but I still trusted Rory to do something about it, which was strike two. Right about this time Chris started telling me something was off but I didn't believe him, which lead to many fights between the two of us. Months and months of these argument all came to a head one night after Chris had made a call to Rory's and came out of it convinced something fishy was going on but I once again told him he was just being paranoid. Finally I guess he just got fed up and told me to get into the car, so I could see for myself, which I gladly did convinced that letting him see that everything was fine would put a stop to his increasing nagging.

The sight that greeted us though was as far away from normal as you can come and it definitely took away any illusions I still had left of two of them. The place was practically crawling of drunk teens, who had an all you can drink buffet on the counter, where all kinds of alcoholic beverages were displayed and to accompany all this was music blasting from the stereo at high volume. In this general chaos I spotted Shane heavily making out with some girl on the couch looking ready to nail her right there while Rory was dirty dancing with some teen, who had his hand up her shirt. Both of them were holding a bottle ready with the hand that currently wasn't in use to take a sip now and again.

After that display I think I was in chock for a week or so and I know Chris was too but since he already had a feeling something was wrong he snapped out of it a lot faster than me. Anyway we decided to talk to them the next time they came over and silly me thought something would be different this time, so it wasn't until they both denied it until they were blue in the faces that I realized nothing had change just because I knew. Although we continued to try and get through to them it was first two months ago when we set up an intervention as the last resort as we succeeded.

Now when I sit here hearing that parties like the one we witnessed were normal occurrences along with some other highly in appropriated things best left unmentioned, it scares me how blind I was. I thank some higher power everyday that Chris wasn't and that he made me see the truth cuz God only knows how it would have ended otherwise.

"You guys ready to go?" I hear Rory's voice coming through somewhere in the fog of my brain and I snap out of my reminisce of the past.

I merely nod as an answer to her before turning to Chris next to me offering him a smile, which he answers back with one of his own. Hand in hand we get up and follow Rory and Shane outside.

**_One more chapter left but that one will be the epilogue and differently formatted. However, I don't know when I can have that up since school has started and I'm fairly busy these days but I'll do my very best._**

**_So what did you guys think?_**


	4. Epilogue

**Rating: R, just to be on the safe side.**

**Disclaimer: No way, no how, no hell does anything remotely close to Gilmore Girls belong to me.**

**Since English isn't my first language there is going to be some typos and grammar mistakes.**

**I'm sorry for the long wait since the last update but I started at the university and well it has been busier than I thought but here comes the last chapter of this story and I hope some people still read this.**

**The Chronicles Of…**

**Epilogue**

_**General**_

A year later Shane and Rory are standing at the Case Mountain, where Rory just finished telling him about the stunt she pulled with the help of Paris and Jess the day of Tristan's funeral all those years ago and Shane has a hard time grasping the whole idea.

"So let me get this straight. There is four people myself included that know that my father's ash isn't laying three feet under at the cemetery but are really here?"

"Yes, but I don't know exactly where the ash is"

"What? How is that possible?"

"Well it isn't exactly like I buried it I let the wind take it"

"From where?"

"Right where we are standing"

"Why did you do it?"

"Because all his life or at least as long as I knew him your father wanted out of this life, he wanted to be free to be himself and not just the Dugrey boy, so I couldn't let him spend his eternity in the family tomb ok!"

"You really did love him didn't you?"

"With whole my heart"

"We can go if this is too hard for you"

"No. You know why I've waited to take you here and tell you all of this for so long?"

Shane shakes his head.

"To make sure I would have enough strength to deal with all the emotions I knew it would bring up."

"And you are now?"

"Yeah. I'm not saying I don't feel tempted to hide behind the bottle again cuz I do but I won't ever take that road again, which brings me to the other reason I took you here now"

"Which is?"

"I was kind of hoping this could be a new beginning for us"

"Huh?"

"I think it's time to let go of the past. I'll always love your dad but it's time to stop hurting that he isn't here and take comfort in the memory that he once was, you know to give life another shoot."

"Yeah I know the feeling"

"I would also like another chance with you"

"It's too late for you to suddenly wanna play mom. I'm twenty years old and I don't need or want that anymore. Whatever illusion I had of having a family disappeared a long time ago about the same time when I was forced to grow up and take care of both of us. I'm not a lost kind anymore and I won't ever let myself be that vulnerable again"

"Look my past record aside I'm not stupid Shane. I know I blew any chance at being you mom years ago but I would like to be a part of your life whatever way you can let me maybe even as friends and someday maybe you can find in it in you to call me mom."

"Mom is just word and I can call you that cuz you're my mom, who I love despite everything that happened but I need time to let you in the same way as I did pre-Hartford. I mean intellectual I know you have changed it will just take some time for my heart to catch up with that and the past year all my energy has been on staying sober, so let's just take it one step at the time ok?"

"That's fine with me; you really are your father's son ya know. His biggest fear was being vulnerable too because of the way he was brought up and I hate the fact that I ended up doing the same thing to you as his parents did to him."

"You see that is the problem right there I don't have any memories of him, for crying out load the guy died when I was what 5 hours and you haven't exactly been helpful on that department. I think this is one of the first times you voluntarily mentioned him in my entire life."

"I know and that is one of the things I wanna change. I want us to be able to talk about your dad without the tears and the angst that normally accompany that subject. I realize I didn't handle the situation as I should have from the start but I promise you from now on we will talk about him and I'll tell everything I know, which unfortunately just covers from high school and onwards."

"Ok so I can ask you anything and you will answer"

"If I can yes"

"Why haven't my grandparents on his side ever taken contact with me?"

"Wow you getting right in there with the hard ones. Ok here it goes, not many people knows this cuz the Dugreys did put up the loving parents act at his funeral but they actually disowned him when he choose to be with us. Apparently I wasn't good enough for him. In fact he was on his was back from them when he got into the accident"

"That's why my last name is Gilmore?"

"No, Tristan wanted you to be named Gilmore, probably cuz he knew what that would mean to me and that he wasn't exactly proud to be a Dugrey"

"So basically dad's parents are as bad as grandma's"

"Pretty much yeah, but they do know more about your dad than I do so if you want I can try to make contact with them"

"No, if they haven't cared about me by now I don't want anything to do with them"

"Talk about being born into a crazy world huh?"

"Yeah Hartford is pretty fucked up"

"In hindsight I guess we should have tried to solve stuff like that before you were born…but things are the way they are. Wait a minute I could call Paris, she knew your father all his life and probably knows all his dirty secrets besides it would be cool to met Jess again"

"Slow down there mom" Shane stops to give a little crooked smile at the irony of his use of the word "I'll start with what you know and who is Jess?"

"Jess is Paris's husband and my ex-boyfriend from High School"

"But I thought you were with dad in High School?"

"Oh I was"

"But then how…oh forget it I don't wanna know"

After that they just stand there in silence letting the feeling of content fill them, have the sun in their faces and in Shane's case a cigarette in his mouth.

Shane or rather Shane's stomach is the one breaking the silence.

"I guess that's our cue for leaving", Rory laughs

"Naw, I'm fine mom, we can stay longer"

"It's ok. We better get going anyway cuz I'm meeting my mom to go over some wedding plans at Luke's and I better not be late this time considering what happened last"

"Yeah I thought Luke was going to kill her"

"I think he was close, she was really driving him crazy"

"Crazier"

"Good point but still I better be there"

"Mmm, I still can't believe grandpa proposed"

"I'm more surprised that mom said yes this time"

"This time?" Shane asks with his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, he kind of proposed back when they were 16 and just had me but mom didn't want him to be with her out of obligation, which it in all honestly would have been, so she said no and let him free to follow his plans. Although basically every time when dad came to visit me while growing up they ended up in the sack, it was first when we were in California they got their act together and here we are. What can I say? I guess fucked up relationships runs in the family"

"I guess so"

"I haven't really asked you how you feel about all this"

"Well I'm thorned. On the one hand I don't have the best relationship with grandpa mainly cuz of his shitty attitude towards me in the beginning but on the other hand it is getting better all the time and he does make grandma, who I love, very happy. I guess in the end all that matters it that they are happy together besides with some work I think things are going to be fine with between us too"

"When did you get so smart?"

"I've always been, I just hid it real good"

Right then Shane's stomach chooses to grumble again.

"Right leaving it's"

Shane almost immediately turns around and starts walking to the car while Rory stays, closes her eyes and let the wind sweep through her hair just like the last time she was here.

"Good Bye Tristan, I'll never forget"

Just as Rory utters those words a sense of closure missing from twenty years ago washes over her and somehow she knows that no matter how rough the road ahead of her and Shane will be they will make it and they are home at last. Smiling she turns around and starts walking toward the unknown, feeling hopeful for the first time since the return to Hartford.

**The End**

_**Let me know what you thought.**_


End file.
